Our blog

Women face workplace discrimination

Published: September 13, 2016

Pregnant women and mothers may be being treated unfairly in the workplace, claims Citizens Advice.

In many cases, women often do not know how to seek any redress if they are discriminated against at work. Therefore, Citizens Advice is calling for the government to create a single body that would provide support to staff who feel their rights have been violated.

At present, many women contact Citizens Advice for help and the charity has seen a 58 per cent increase in the number of new and expecting mothers discussing maternity leave issues in face-to-face interviews over the past two years – increasing from 2,099 in 2013 to 3,307 in 2015.

“Maternity protections are part of people’s employment rights but responsibility for enforcing these is poorly resourced and spread across a wide range of agencies, from HMRC to the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority,” said Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy.